


we are alone

by folkinround



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-24
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-14 13:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2193969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/folkinround/pseuds/folkinround
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey's drunk. Fiona and Ian talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we are alone

“C’mon, big guy, almost there,” Ian says. He has his arm wrapped around Mickey’s waist and Mickey’s arm across his shoulders, holding him and supporting him as they walk back to the house. “We’ll fucking make it,” he laughs.

“’Course we’ll fucking _make_ it, Gallagher, shut the fuck up,” Mickey mumbles, leaning into Ian a bit further. The worst part was getting off the L and making it down the station stairs, everything from then on, Mickey already counts as a win. He’s too drunk and too tired to tell Ian that, though. All he wants to do is collapse in bed and fall asleep.

Preferably with Ian’s warm body wrapped around his.

“Okay, last bit of stairs,” Ian warns as they step into the Gallagher living room. The few steps before the front door were easy, but now comes the real final challenge. Ian is drunk too, there’s no denying, but he’s not half as bad as Mickey. Mickey stumbles a little, curses, and Ian laughs as he pulls him back to his feet. “Fuck,” he says. “Shut up, Mickey. We’re goin’ to wake everyone else.”

Mickey groans in protest, but doesn’t say anything else. They’re loud on their way up, stumbling on their feet because it’s ten times harder to move drunkenly in the dark, but they eventually make it to the bedroom, kick off their shoes and Mickey collapses onto Ian’s bed, lying on his stomach with his face buried on Ian’s pillow.

Something about that image makes Ian’s stomach flip.

He stands there for a moment, watching Mickey in the dark, Liam’s night light casting a weird shadow over him, making his head seem huge in the shadow projected on the wall. It’s no big deal, Mickey sleeping in his bed. He’s done it a lot of times before, but something about it now makes Ian want to climb in with him and kiss his neck and fucking _make love_ to him.

He doesn’t, though. He can see Mickey’s body rising and falling with each deep breath he takes. He’s asleep already, one shoe still on and Ian thinks it’s fucking _cute_.

He leans in and removes it before tucking Mickey’s leg back into bed.

And he leaves after that, shaking his head and laughing a little at himself as he closes the door.

Despite all the noise they made, the household seems to remain asleep. Ian doesn’t feel tired enough to sleep, so he goes to the bathroom and pees, washes his face and brushes his teeth, takes off his jeans. He moves to the living room and turns the TV on, then sits down on the couch with his journal, scribbling and doodling down a few things that popped on his mind during the course of the night.

 

~

 

There is noise upstairs after a few minutes. Ian sets his pen down and turns to look at the staircase to see Fiona walking down, looking confused.

“What the hell are you doing up this late?” she asks, wrapping her arms around herself and squinting to look at Ian. “Thought I’d heard something,” she says. “Did you just come home from work?”

Ian shrugs. “Mickey moving upstairs,” he says. “We had a few after work.”

“Oh,” Fiona says, looking a bit more awake now. She takes a few steps towards the kitchen. “D’you want a cup of tea?”

Ian nods. “Yeah, sure,” he says.

 

~

 

“So,” Fiona says, handing Ian his tea and sitting down next to him on the couch, legs crossed indian style. “Mickey Milkovich is still here,” she says, and she has that odd motherly look on her face.

Ian shrugs again. “He’s helping buy groceries and pay some bills,” he says.

Fiona takes a sip from her tea and watches her brother for a second before shrugging as well. “Is that all it takes to get to sleep in your bed?” she asks, but her lips are curled in a funny way, almost like she’s smiling.

Ian notices, and it makes him look away and smile a little himself, shaking his head. “We go back,” he says with a small shrug, then looks up at her again and tilts his head to the side. “Oh come on, Fi, don’t tell me you didn’t realize that.”

She shrugs again. “Yeah, well, okay,” she admits. “I was wondering why would he sneakily move in for, if not you.” She smiles a little wider now, though still subtly, watching Ian.

“ _What_?” he asks, and she does smile fully now.

“Well, is it serious?” she finally asks, biting her lip.

“Fuckin’ hell, Fiona,” Ian says, shaking his head again. “Is this a _talk_?” he asks.

“God, no,” Fiona snorts, finally laughing and shaking her head as well. “No, I just… I’m just worried about you, is all,” she says, looking down at her own hands and shaking her head again. She looks up and runs a hand through her hair. “You know how we Gallaghers tend to be when it comes to relationships,” she says.

Ian closes his eyes for a moment, holding his cup with both hands. “I think it is serious,” he says, voice just a little lower. He looks at his tea, watching the steam rise from the liquid surface. “He wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t,” he adds.

He really hopes it’s true, that Mickey doesn’t have any other reason other than wanting to be with Ian. That he isn’t just running from his wife and baby. He thinks about all that they went through, between having to come out to Mandy to escape Mickey beating the shit out of him and fucking in the storeroom of Kash’s store. Between getting caught by Terry and Mickey getting fucking _married_ and running away when things seemed to have reached the bottom line, only to have things come even worse to him. It all seemed to start looking up when Mickey found him at that bar, brought him back and stayed, and now he was being challenged again, was having doubts again.

Fiona keeps looking at him, frowning as she watches Ian’s smile fade into a sad look. “Hey, cheer up, kiddo, I didn’t mean to bring you down with this,” she says, reaching out a hand and squeezing Ian’s shoulder. “I’m just asking.”

Ian shakes his head again. “There’s just a lot of stuff,” he tells her. “We’ve been through some shit.” He shrugs as if to dismiss the subject, and Fiona nods, ruffling his hair.

“Yeah, well, that just proves you’re a Gallagher,” she says and it’s meant to cheer him up, so he doesn’t mind it very much. She squeezes his shoulder again and stands after that. “Get some sleep, kid,” she says, leaning in to kiss him on the head before she heads back upstairs.

Ian directs his gaze down to his tea, cooling in the cup between his hands, but he doesn’t pay attention to it, letting his mind wander. It gets dangerously close to bad places, sometimes, when he lets it go like that. There are certain shadows that loom over him, make him go places he’s afraid to. Ian doesn’t want that now, he decides.

He leaves his tea on the coffee table, turns off the TV and makes his way back upstairs. Mickey’s still asleep on his bed, but he’s turn around and is facing him when he walks in. It makes Ian’s heart flutter, the look on his face, his lips curled into a light pout. He reaches out and touches his face gently, brushes a lock of hair off his eyes and then climbs into bed behind him, not holding him like he wants to because he knows Mickey won’t like it, but he stays close. He presses his forehead to the space between Mickey’s shoulders and closes his eyes.


End file.
